Today’s Gospel passage focuses on the winemakers. They are both incapable (they don’t know how to make the vineyard bear fruit) and violent; they are usurpers and murderers. But where is the root of their evil? Is it in their inability? In their selfishness?  Partly. The greater part of blame attaches to the repeated rejection of God’s prophets (the master’s messengers). All through its history, God has sent his servants to Israel.  But these have always been rejected, mistreated and put to death. The rejection of the envoys, however, implies rejection of the Sender.  Here we come to the heart of the drama, which has its tragic culmination in the killing of the master’s son, that is, Jesus.  From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus had aroused interest, wonder, amazement but also perplexity, scandal and hatred. That Jesus had to end his life with a violent death was implicit in his way of presenting himself.  We need only think of the five Galilean controversies in Mark, the last of which ends with: «The Pharisees immediately went out with the Herodians and held counsel against him to put him to death” (Mk 3:6). But God, who had foreseen this refusal on the part of Israel, chooses his Messiah as the cornerstone of the new holy people, the Church. After the failure of the chosen people, the Kingdom is handed over to a new people, for the Greek term éthnos is used to designate these new winemakers, both singular and non-singular; laos (people) but not the plural form  tà éthne (people). Who, then, am I?  Bearing in mind the context, we can say we are those who accepted the message of Jesus. Among this new people we find primarily pagans but also a part of the Jews and, not least, the prostitutes and publicans.

Please, Lord,
make me a good worker in your vineyard;
a worker who arrives tired in the evening
but with a happy heart,
because the real reward
it is the honour of having served you.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb Abbazia di Santa Maria – Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,Prinknash Abbey